Issue Brief on “The Emerging Sino-Japanese Detente”

Japanese Foreign Minister, Taro Kono, paid an official visit to Beijing on January 27-28, 2018. Earlier, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida had visited Beijing in April 2016. This is Kono’s first official visit to China after assuming his portfolio in August 2017. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Kono and exchanged opinions on bilateral ties and issues of common concerns.[1]

This formal effort will help re-assure the promotion of bilateral ties between the two countries after tense relations in the past seven years over the Island issue, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. However, in a potentially harmful move on January 25, 2018, China had rebuked Japan after it opened a museum for the disputed island in Tokyo. The museum, run by the Japanese Government, displays documents and photographs defending Japan’s claims over the Island.[2] The museum also displays photographs of the Takashima (in Japan) and Dokdo (in South Korea), an Island counter claimed by South Korea, inviting anger from both China and South Korea ahead of a trilateral meeting to be held in Japan soon.